1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of producing for review a tufted fabric pattern prior to actually tufting the fabric with a conventional tufting device that utilizes either a staggered needle bar or multiple needle bars. Through use of an inexpensive microprocessor and a computer program, the designing of fabrics can be greatly accelerated. In lieu of running the actual graphics tufter, one can key basic tufting parameters into the computer. The invention provides a rapid, simple and inexpensive method of developing patterns for tufting.
2. The Prior Art
Conventional tufting machines generally utilize either a staggered needle bar or multiple, non-staggered needle bars. (A staggered needle bar is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,321 to Card, hereby incorporated by reference). A plan view of a staggered needle bar would show two straight parallel rows of needles with the needles being equispaced in each row but staggered in one row with respect to the other. The arrangement can also be viewed as having a needle at each apex and juncture of a plurality of contiguous V's. The non-staggered needle bars, on the other hand, support a plurality of needles, linearly arranged and usually equispaced. In the non-staggered needle bar, the gauge is the distance between adjacent needles; the gauge for a staggered needle bar, however, is normally one-half the distance between adjacent needles of one row. Heretofore, in order to determine the desirability of a particular tufted fabric pattern when using two or more non-staggered needle bars, it has been necessary to actually tuft the fabric or else use a graph paper plotting technique. Sample production is both time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, little or no indication can be obtained by tufting a fabric pattern as to what changes in the tufting parameters would be advisable for improvement. It would be of great value to the industry to be able to develop designs and screen them prior to actually tufting.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,253 to Toshihiro et al. claims a pattern generating system for providing pattern information to produce a Jacquard pattern for a knitting or weaving machine. A pattern drawn on a sheet is converted to an analog signal by television camera. A digital signal is derived according to each color of the pattern. The digital signal is fed to a knitting or weaving machine to produce the pattern. A cathode-ray tube can be used to view the pattern.
Jacquard devices are much more complex than carpet tufting devices. In a Jacquard device, each yarn can be positioned almost independently of the others. Because of this, nearly any visible pattern can be simulated in a fabric produced by these devices. The carpet tufting devices are much more primitive from a patterning point of view, and most visual patterns cannot be duplicated.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,654,288 to Savadelis discloses the concept of correlating yarns and the appearance of a fabric woven from the yarns by viewing the pattern on a cathode-ray tube before weaving.
Additional patents of interest include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,925,776 to Swallow, 3,944,997 to Swallow, 4,106,416 to Blackstone et al., 4,250,522 to Seki et al., and 4,303,986 to Lans. All of the patents mentioned above are hereby incorporated by reference.